DATE=6/15/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SECURITY COUNCIL/ CONGO(L-0)
NUMBER=2-263534
BYLINE=BARBARA SCHOETZAU
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations is focusing its attention
on Congo-Kinshasa where the first of two days of talks
with the signatories to the 1999 Lusaka peace
agreement - the so-called "political committee" - is
underway. From U-N headquarters in New York,
correspondent Barbara Schoetzau reports the U-N
Security Council has taken the lead, meeting at length
with members of the political committee to try to find
a solution to the multi-party conflict.
TEXT: The chair of the political committee, Ugandan
Foreign Minister Amama Mbabazi, told Security Council
members many of the violations of the Lusaka agreement
have ocurred because the mechanisms called for by the
peace accord were never fully implemented, largely due
to lack of resources.
Mr. Mbabazi says the political committee faces
enormous challenges in trying to calm the situation in
Congo-Kinshasa, exemplified by the fighting between
Rwandan and Ugandan troops seeking control of the
northern diamond center of Kisangani.
/// MBABAZI ACT ////
The committee expressed its concern over this
regrettable development and while welcoming the
efforts to bring back the situation in Kisangani to
normalcy, called on Rwanda and Uganda to immediately
bring an end to the fighting and implement the
agreement between them for the demilitarization of
Kisangani. I am glad to inform this Council that
fighting has since stopped.
////END ACT ////
Mr. Mbabazi says efforts must be made to lock in the
cease fire. And he says he expects the release of
prisoners of war to begin shortly.
The United States Ambassador to the United Nations,
Richard Holbrooke, calls the ceasefire fragile,
tempered by the events of the last two weeks. The U-S
envoy says there was no excuse for the resumption of
fighting in Kisangani.
//// HOLBROOKE ACT ////
There was no excuse when the fighting began
around May third or fourth. The immediate
cessation of it after the Security Council-
negotiated cease fire of May eighth was
promising. But the resumption of the fighting in
the last few weeks at an extraordinarily high
level of intensity, leaving hundreds of people
killed and thousands wounded, causing enormous
damage to the infrastructure of Kisangani,
damage which the international community will
have to pay to clean up, otherwise it will not
be done, diverting resources from long-term
reconstruction and essential health and
educational needs, is one of the most troubling
things that I have ever seen in my career in
diplomacy.
//// END ACT ////
Mr. Holbrooke says the recent fighting has made it
more difficult to get governments to contribute troops
or funding for peacekeeping efforts in Congo-Kinshasa.
The Security Council is continuing work on a draft
resolution demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops
from Congo-Kinshasa, expecting to have the draft
completed in time for a Friday vote. (Signed)
NEB/NYC/bjs/LSF/PT
15-Jun-2000 17:33 PM EDT (15-Jun-2000 2133 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
